Rain Cancelled
by wildwoodxflower
Summary: Haley James travels to a Northern California summer resort with her family and is surrounded by complete strangers. Just when she is fed up with the apparent mediocrity of the camp, she stumbles upon a familiar face from home.
1. Waiting For An Opportunity

**A/N :** Hmm.. how to explain this story. As the summary said – Haley vacations at an esteemed summer resort with her family the summer before her junior year. Her Tree Hill life is still taking place (best friend of Lucas, tutor, closet-singer). While at the camp, she stumbles (literally) across a familiar face from home.

(Don't forget to review.)

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Rain – the force of nature that was keeping me holed up inside the cabin my parents rented for the summer. Northern California seemed to be a bit more wet and dreary than the more populous southern section. The scenery, however, offered compensation for the weather – bushy trees surrounded us, as well as several lakes and secluded areas. Our vacation home was located in a respectable summer camp near Pebble Beach. It was a beautiful house in a beautiful camp filled with beautiful people and decorated with beautiful landscapes and weather. Beautiful blah blah blah.

We had only arrived the first Sunday of June, and already I was standing by for the announcement that my fickle parents had decided to get up and head back to our seasonal home in North Carolina. I had become used to their sporadic decisions that usually involved uprooting the family – after all, I was sixteen years old and this was nothing new. When they had announced that they had rented us a house out here – in California – I laughed with the rest of my siblings and shook my head with a sarcastic 'ok'… and now look at me. The one time they actually do what they said they were going to, and we end up 3,000 miles away from home for an entire summer.

Don't get me wrong – it's not that I don't want a vacation or that I hate my family. I just happen to enjoy the delights of home more than I like traveling. My mom keeps on hassling me to, "Get out there and make some new friends." Yeah, right. If only things could actually be as simple as mothers put them. I was perfectly pleased with the wonderful friends I had back home. In fact, I thought I was being very pleasant and cooperative when I so graciously agreed to come here. I didn't even complain about being ripped away from my friends during the summer before my highly anticipated junior year.

Now I sound spoiled. Be gracious, Haley; you're blessed. Wonderful family, wonderful friends, wonderful vacations, wonderful grades. Wonderful blah blah blah. The truth. I'll speak up and tell the truth (the whole and nothing but). Occasionally, I would like to be someone other than Jim and Lydia's daughter, or Taylor's sister, or Lucas' best friend, or a student at Tree Hill High School…I want to be defiant. I'd like to be able to say, one day, that I've accomplished more than just a perfect 4.0. I want to be more than a by the book, somewhat anonymous girl who no one notices walking down a sidewalk. In short, all I'm waiting for is a chance to be a rebel.

This rain looks like it has no intention of letting up – meaning my rebellion is going to have to be put on hold once more. The antique-looking clock on the mantle informs me that if I'm not ready in an hour, I'll miss the sure to be delicious dinner in the dining hall. But for now, for just a little bit longer, I'll sit by the rain-spotted window and look for an opportunity.


	2. Run for the Hills

**A/N: **Thank you for the reviews! I'm glad y'all like it and want more! On to Chapter Two.

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Rain – nature's approach to washing away the old and starting fresh. For me on the other hand, it was the producer of a muddy slip and slide that prolonged my trek to the dining hall. Already, my formerly sparkling white Keds were speckled with dirt polka dots. I could see the hall – it was a mere hundred yards away – but for some reason, perhaps that I was already drenched on account of forgetting my umbrella, I hesitated on approaching it any further. My parents had directed me earlier to meet them after dinner by the lake for some sort of story-telling, campfire debacle. This prompted me to ditch the family and instead, explore camp a little further.

On first glance, the cabin I was suddenly interested in looked exactly like the rest of the time-shares in the area. A large porch wrapped all the way around the house's perimeter, the front door matched the wood used to construct the window panes… the house itself was painted what I think was meant to be an inviting pastel yellow. Everything in Pebble Beach is pastel; from the houses to the cars to the shops and back. I eventually got used to it. But what really caught my eye was the small dog prancing its way across the porch and around – as if he or she was policing the area. It had managed to stay fairly dry in this weather, meaning it was most likely smart enough to know not to venture away from the porch during a thunderstorm.

I assumed it wouldn't be much of a problem if I joined him on the porch; he was a little thing and wasn't much bigger than my sister's makeup kit. I sat with my back against the house and waited for the rain to lighten up a little. At this rate, I was sure that we'd have to use boats to get around after the lake flooded. I sat at the house with the dog for a long while, enjoying the relative quiet and isolation. A great deal of loud talking and laughing suddenly erupted from my right, in the direction of the dining hall. I presumed that meant dinner was over and I'd missed my chance at the Jell-o. Oh, well. I didn't pack two boxes of Oreos and Chips Ahoy cookies for nothing!

I could hear my parents' infectious laughing and my sister's obvious flirting coming from the group, meaning my alone time was officially over. I stood, brushed off the back of my capris, and gave the dog a little pet goodbye. As I straightened to join my family down by the lake, I began walking before I really looked ahead of me. Instant mistake, of course. I suddenly found myself slipping down the rain-slicked stairs and grabbing for anything to stop myself from landing in mud. What I managed to grab onto was not exactly what I was expecting, which caused me to cling onto the person that had saved my ego.

"Whoa, whoa, are you okay? Stop moving!" This was the voice of my rescuer.

"I'm alright – I'm fine! Let me go already." Me. The gracious and blessed one.

"Okay. You sure you can make it to the lake without falling on your face?" The boy smirked, as if he was enjoying this awkward conversation.

"Yeah, thanks for the concern." I bit back, too annoyed to be anything but sarcastic. "For your information, I'm not normally this clumsy."

His smirk morphed into a smile. "I'll take your word for it." He thrust his hand out. "Nathan Scott. And you are? I mean, other than the girl with the worst hand-eye coordination I've ever met."

I didn't know whether or not I should be flattered with his attempts to get to know me or pissed off with his off-handed insults. "I'm Haley James." I slowly extended my hand to his and we shook. I decided on being nice to him; he seemed to be friendly enough. "Is this your house?"

He nodded, looking up at a second story window. "Yeah. My parents were dead-set on coming here for the summer. Apparently North Carolina isn't scenic enough for them."

Whoa. Hold the phone. He's from North Carolina?

"You're from North Carolina?" I paused, waiting for him to reply.

"Yeah, I'm from this little town near Wilmington; it's called Tree Hill. You probably haven't heard of it. It's practically population 1,500." He focused his eyes back on me.

I realized my mouth was hanging slightly agape and quickly shut it. "I know it. I actually live there too – this is too weird." I knew this kid. I knew, _I knew_ he looked familiar!

He squinted his eyes at me, like he was trying to find out where he'd seen me before. After a moment, his smile tightened, then faded. "Lucas?" Pause. "Are you Lucas' friend?"

Oh, the irony. Nathan Scott was the only person I'd ever loathed with out ever meeting. After the stories Lucas and his mom had told me about not only him, but also his father and their wickedness, it wasn't difficult to despise him. Ick. Back to reality.

"Yes. Lucas and I are friends. If you'll excuse me…" I averted my gaze and hurriedly pushed past him. He made no move to stop me. So much for new friends, mom. I made my way down to the lake and stood with my family, all the while trying to forget that I'd be spending the next six weeks with the undesirable half of the Scott name. There had to be some way to avoid seeing him or anyone of his family. Though, with the current luck I was having, my mom and Mrs. Scott would become best friends and invite each other's families on a hiking trip or something equally horrifying.

The moment I heard 'Scott' come out of his mouth, I should have run for the hills.


	3. Unscathed

**A/N: **Yaaaay – you like it! I'm ecstatic. Thank you all for the fabulous reviews; they really do inspire me to keep on writing this fanfic. Enough with the brief chit-chat – chapter three!

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It was pathetic. Six days into this fun little getaway and nothing exciting or moving had happened to me. Well… ok. I guess you can validate that my encounter with He Who Shall Remain Nameless was a moving experience – I got my butt out of there as fast as I could. Hahaha. Pathetic.

3:14 on a Friday afternoon. My father and I were about to settle down and play our routine game of chess. I swear, if I had looked at this situation from the outside looking in, I'd have burst out laughing. There's a girl heading out the door to go sunbathing in a micro-bikini, a cell phone in her hand. There's a woman hustling and bustling in the small kitchen for the Tupperware container she swore she had brought. There's a man sitting in an easy chair, studying a chessboard, his forehead creasing in concentration. Then, there's another girl. Dressed in jeans and a faded top, her hair piled on top of her head in a messy bun, she looks like nothing special. She looks as if her mind, heart and body are in three different places at once. I'd feel bad for that girl. Then I'd realize it was me and I'd wonder if these were the beginning stages of turning into an emo kid.

I had to get out. My mom had begged me earlier that day to join her for the kayak race the next day. My sister had persuaded me to cover for her that night, when she would be at some festivity involving highly tanned bodies in skimpy (if any) clothes. My dad had already roped me into the chess game. I needed to evacuate the house before I lashed out irrationally.

"Hey, dad?" I half-whispered, so as not to startle him out of his game-meditation state.

It took him a few seconds before he tilted his head up and looked at me. "Don't try and distract me. That's rude!" He laughed at himself and scooted his piece across the board.

I cracked a smile, placing my piece back down to signal that I wanted a talking break. "Would you mind if we paused the game for a while? I'd really like to get some fresh air and walk around before dinner."

He looked a little peeved, but what could I do? If I stayed another minute in that house, I was sure I'd suffocate from stuffy atmosphere created by insufficient entertainment.

I stood up and looked at him again, making sure that I wasn't about to get in a bunch of trouble. My parents were odd that way. I could come home with piercings in my eyebrows and my head shaved; they'd think that was fresh. Meanwhile, if I left the house… that had to be a cry for help. My dad had seemed to have forgotten that we were talking, let alone playing chess. He now looked like he was enthralled with a _Dallas_ rerun that was playing on the TV. I made my way to the front door and paused before I opened it, again, checking to see if he or my mother were going to force me back into 'family time'.

An excruciatingly long three seconds later, I was leaping off the porch and heading down to the recreation cabin. If anything could cure a boring afternoon, it was a high-energy game. Something that involved lots of flailing arms.

It took me quite a while to reach the cabin; partly because I was walking slowly, trying to bask in the isolation, and partly because the cabin was almost a mile away from my starting point. Anyway, the point is, I didn't get to the cabin until nearly 4:00. This meant that most of the 'mature' crowd was getting ready for dinner, leaving the adolescents to run wild without supervision.

The cabin was huge, with a swimming pool, skylights, games and exercise equipment. Half of the cabin was split so that it was outside, which was wear the pool and most of the teenagers were. Nevertheless, it didn't take me long to find my sister. She was lying on a lounge chair and surrounded by her usual crowd of beautiful girls and heartthrob-ish boys. I knew I'd probably be looked at as an outcast if I sat with her, but for once, it didn't matter. She was my sister, and like it or not, I wanted to hang out with her.

The moment I sat down near her, she shrieked. "Haley!" She sat up immediately and pushed her gigantic sunglasses up into her hair. I thought she was going to force me to go back to our house, but instead, when I looked at her, she actually seemed happy to see me. She beckoned me over and shooed her friends partially away.

"Hey, Tay. Sorry to intrude. Mom and dad were driving me insane." I smiled weakly.

She giggled, either oblivious to the guys staring at her or just seasoned in pretending not to notice. "Were they acting normal again?"

I laughed, nodding. "You got it." I placed my purse down on the deck near my chair.

"Well, listen. You might as well chill here with me. In fact, I think you should put on some tanning lotion. You're beginning to look like Casper and that scares me." She handed me her bottle of Hawaiian Tropics.

"Thanks, but I didn't even bring my swimsuit. I didn't think I'd be swimming or laying out when I got here."

"No problem!" She bent over the armrest of her lounge chair and dug into her tote bag. She then tossed shards of fabric over her shoulder at me, which I caught and examined.

"Taylor! If you think I'm going to be wearing this… I can't even call it a bikini… you are out of your mind." The navy blue and white bikini was hardly regulation.

"Oh, come on! Trust me, it just looks small. Once you've got it on, it'll provide all the coverage your little bashful-self needs." With that, she readjusted her sunglasses over her eyes and started flipping through a magazine.

I began to protest, but decided it would be pointless. With a grumble, I stood up and sashayed my way to the women's changing rooms.

_Big_ mistake. Huge. A nightmare. Grotesquely, horrifyingly massive mistake. Once I yanked the thing on and looked at myself in the mirror, this realization dawned on me. Ok, ok, I'm not flabby, nor do I resemble a pre-pubescent boy. But I am not, repeat **not**, comfortable with showing off my body! I stood in the changing room for a good fifteen minutes, debating on whether or not I should just throw my clothes back on and head for home.

Let's be rational, Haley. There are lots of girls out there wearing the same sort of thing you are, and they're not freaking out! Maybe it'd all be fine once I actually got back to Taylor and my chair. No one can gawk at you if you're just _sitting _there. With this new mentality, I grabbed my clothes and used them as a shield on my stomach, which somehow made me feel less self-conscious.

I quickly exited the changing rooms and tried to hurry my way back. I should have learned from previous life experiences that haste makes waste.

So there I was, trying to blend into the crowd and remain unrecognizable, which required a lot of dodging and weaving. Then, bam. He turned when I pushed through the crowd. Mr. He Who Shall Remain Nameless was knocked off his feet into the pool by me, the girl lying on the concrete deck with scraped knees, a bloody nose and a barely-there bikini.

If this had been a nightmare, at least I'd get to wake up unscathed.


End file.
